Canada holds on to 2011 deadline for Kandahar withdrawal
Richard Foot, Canwest News Service
Published: Friday, November 21, 2008
CORNWALLIS, N.S. - The United States will deploy five new army brigades - about 20,000 troops - to Afghanistan starting in January, in the hope making the country secure enough for presidential elections in the fall, U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said here Friday.
"The most important objective for us in 2009 is a successful election," he said. "We'd like to get the combat brigade teams into Afghanistan before the election."
Gates was speaking following a day-long meeting in Nova Scotia on Friday with his defence counterparts from Canada, Britain, Holland and other countries with troops in Afghanistan.
More on the link & the Afghan thread